Thursday, January 15, 2026

Florida Arbor Day, Traditions and Idioms - a jocund morning at EarlyBirds!




Dear Members, Guests and Friends,

TM Marie got us started with an invocation by Walt Whitman.  TM Pam inspired us with Arbor Day topics...  we uncovered and discovered that...

* TM The Tom planted a tree when his dear Mother passed away, which still brings back bittersweet memories of his loss.
* TM Aleta plants trees so she can grow her own firewood and spends most of her days watering them.  She Won Best Table Topics Award.
* TM Christine currently has a job that requires her to climb a ladder and dust off otherwise unreachable cabinets in newly-remodeled houses.
* Guest TM Vika explained that there are lots of Argentinian woods to walk and discover in Argentina, where she's been living for 10 years.
* TM Veronica described her favorite Argentine tree, the jacaranda, which offers an explosion of lilac coloring to Buenos Aires twice a year.

We had (2) prepared speeches...

* TM Jose made our mouths water with a visual presentation of the scrumptious mid-morning snack in Valencia, Spain, called Esmorzaret.  Ah to be Spanish and thin....
* I, TM Ana, described some of the often used but rarely understood hundreds of idioms that color our everyday language.  I Won Best Speaker Award.

As far as evaluations...

* TM Veronica - first time evaluator- praised TM Jose's clear, confident voice, the good speech structure and descriptive food language.  She asked him to please Fedex her a huge bocadillo for practicing Valencia traditions.  She Won Best Evaluator Award.  Great job, TM Veronica!
* TM Christine loved my speech, chock-full of idioms, and asked that I stop rustling my notes so close to the microphone or altogether discard them so I can make more hand gestures.  Just sayin'....

The Word of the Day was

JOCUND, adj
cheerful, merry, lighthearted

Example:  EarlyBirds is a jocund group on any given Thursday morning.

Here's the link to the recording....

Date to Remember:  International Speech Contest at EarlyBirds will be held on Thursday, January 29.  Get your speeches ready!

See you next week!

Ana I.
Jocund Recap Writer

No comments:

Post a Comment